First Ride Ruined

So went to go for our first ride of the year today!!!! 77 degree air 65 degree water. Got the batteries all charged up over night. Back the boat down, son starts her up while i park the tow. Get down to the boat waters pouring out from under the my feet. Apparently when i got mine winterized they forgot the heater. Now i got a busted core.....nice. Called them, of course they're closed. Go by there at 300 closed at 200. Now i get to wait until Monday to start the battle of whose gonna pay. Ill prob just bypass it until the end of the year, but its still going to suck.

Yes, you need shut off's to it! Why wait til monday. Install them!

Use an elbow and connect the two hoses..bypasses heater.

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Easy fix and not a big cost... Shouldn't have to fight too much.. I always install quick connects in the heater lines in my boats on the engine side so when this happens you can bypass on the water in about 2 sec... Certainly no need to let this ruin your day on the water...

I'm just mad it happened at all. I paid good money to get it winterized. Now this, guess the old saying is true. Want something done right.......

Penner, Can you share pick or link to quick connects you used?

I'd like to see those too RPenner

Go to home depot, get 2 ball valves and get a 5/8 hose barb fitting that screws into them on each side. (four total). Cut the supply hoses with a knife and then screw clamp the hoses down on the barb fitting. Might cost you $25 and all fittings are metal. Also allows you to winterize them in 3 minutes by blowing the core out with a shop vac or your mouth. I suggest the shop vac tho, haha. Plus then you can shut them off if there ever is a issue. Don't think I have a pic, but it's not complex.

Bill same thing happened to me a few years ago, first and day out and BAM water at my feet. We bypassed like (HEY) mentioned . But I called the dealer and they would not cover it, like you said I paid good money to have them winterize it. So ever sense than I do it myself and have no issues.. Its a pain in the butt to replace the core to. Hope you have better luck with your dealer than I did mine.. They should catch a heater core seems every boat sense like 02 has heat so should be a standard thing to check, but mistakes happen hope its covered..

Ill never get why people don't winterized their own boats (in most situations at least). You hear about this crap all the time. It isn't hard to do. People claim "time" but for most folks the two round trips to the dealer alone is more time than just doing it in your driveway.

This is why I do my own . I am not rushing to make a profit and its my time to tighten ,clean and polish all the little areas that need attention. I remove both hoses at the engine and use a shop vac to suck out the water from the core then using a funnel pore antifreeze in until it comes out the other hose.

If it makes you feel better my first ride is ruined by the fact that there is still 20" of ice and trucks still driving up and down the lake. Hope the service guys do the right thing for you.
I think a lot of people don't do there own as a security blanket (this is me). I do everything else on the boat but winterize it. I think it is the fear of not knowing. Oil change when your done you can always check the dip stick and check for leaks. I would always be worried that I did not get all the water out. I also think many that winterize there own do not have trouble because it never gets cold enough long enough to do damage.
I will have to do another search on winterizing because the drive alone is a pain.

I would be probably equally afraid of a problem NOT doing it myself as I have had my fair share -probably- of bad mechanics.

Sorry to hear about your problem, I am another fan of doing winterization myself. I added this to my VLX hearter lines for easy winterization of core and if it ever leaks you can bypass it on the water. Just something to consider.... you can pick these parts up at any hardware store for about $30. Another recommendation is to purchase a fake-a-lake and run the boat up to normal operating temp before hitting the water for the first time, always seems to make the first launch go much smoother.

Ill be installing the bypass hoses today. I also got the stargazer upgrade installed this week. Thought i was done working on it for a few weeks. They mounted the other module WAYYY up in the corner made it quite the challenge to get to. Oh well off to the depot for parts. And sorry Greg....guess that's the slight advantages of living in the deep south.(you would think i wouldn't have to worry about freezing)

Sorry I don't have any pics but FMAN has it covered.. Super easy to do and makes winterizing that much easier...

Does anyone remember the days when most boats didn't have heaters? What'd we do then? Not care and enjoy the boat anyway. I know it's a luxury item and extends the season, keeps the girls and kids happy, but seriously, we did fine without them for so long, we can do fine without them still.

Got the old box and core out, looked like a rats next under there. Straightened up wires and hoses
While I was under there vacuumed all out so nice and clean. Got the quick connects on the hoses
So that once I get the new box and core installed I'll never have this issue again. Now its all opened up
Time to add a sub under there......the wifey will be so pleased......haha

You can always just disconnect or cut the hose and loop it back, just like on a car when the heater core goes, just need a screwdriver and a knife. If the shop forgot it, just one of many reasons to do everything yourself. Whenever I try to hire anything out I get the short end of the stick, paying a fortune for shoddy work. Learned long ago never pay anyone to do something you can do yourself. Nobody cares about your stuff as much as you do and nobody will do as nice a job as you.

Well, as i suspected the shop took no responsibility. They told me that I only paid for a motor winterization, not a boat winterization. I argued with them for a little while but its not really worth the aggravation. Got a replacement core from NAPA (40 bucks as opposed to 90) that im pretty sure will fit. Ill install more of the quick connects and I GUARANTEE this wont happen again.

What a bunch of Crap... That is a Lame excuse. The dealer should know better and when they were winterizing should have noticed you have a heater and inn the least given you an option to pay the extra winterization charge.

That excuse is ridiculous unless you specifically requested it not to be done. I hope that wasn't an inboard dealer.

Only a motor winterization and not a boat winterization???? What else does a boat winterization cover? The heater and ....?
That's ridiculous and so weak. There are so few companies these days that stand behind their work and care about reputation.

Yeah its a lame ass excuse. He said i should have know it wasnt a FULL by the price. The thing is i had them reroute batteries out of the rear lockers too and it came to like 700 bucks total if i remember correctly. I figured 300-350 for the winterization and 350 for the battery moving. Oh well like i said IT WONT HAPPEN AGAIN.

You should post up the dealer so nobody else on here learns the hard way. I would be at the place screaming at the guy if he gave me some BS like that.

I had a dealer charge me $100 for winterizing the heater...expensive, but at least he did it. That was also the LAST time they did it, due to their pricing

No dealers close to me, but it was a "boat shop" in the middle GA area. I guess i should be glad they at least did the motor winterization correctly. Like i mentioned earlier it gave me a chance to clean it all up under there, and get the bypass hoses with quick connects installed. Only out my time and the 40 bucks for a new core, so all in all not the worst scenario. Just sucked to have to deal with it at all. Got a nice open space now looking to add a sub under there.